Rex and Hannah Chronicles Story No 36: Arkham Oddities
by Tim66
Summary: Hannah's newspaper article about Arkham is published.


**Arkham Oddities**

DISCLAIMER: The characters of Rex Buckland and Hannah Webster are the property of Spelling Productions and were created by Constance M. Burge. All Cthulhu Mythos characters are the property of the estate of H.P. Lovecraft.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story refers of events in the H.P. Lovecraft stories, _Herbert West-Reanimator, The Colour Out Of Space, The Unnameable,_ and _The Shadow Out Of Time._

The following article appeared in the July 20th edition of the _Arkham Gazette_.

 **Arkham Oddities**

 **by**

 **Hannah Webster**

It is said that every large or small town has a skeleton or two in its closet. Well, in this town of Arkham, Massachusetts, it seems there are more skeletons in more closets than one can shake a stick at.

My common law husband, Rex Buckland, and I are newcomers to this New England town. We moved here in May, when Rex accepted the position of Head of the Ancient Languages Department at Miskatonic University. Miskatonic had this nice old house all ready for us to move into when we got here. However, this house has a sinister reputation and it is that reputation that led me to try and uncover all the aforementioned skeletons this town seems to have.

A century ago, the house that Rex and I now reside in belonged to one Dr. Herbert West, a graduate of Miskatonic University's Medical School. It was after his graduation that Dr. West seemed to become obsessed with bringing the dead back to life. His experiments, carried out with the assistance of one Daniel Cain, were controversial to say the least. For his research, Dr. West obtained a copy of the _Necronomicon_ (said copy is now in the possession of Miskatonic University), an ancient and powerful book of knowledge in regards to things best left unsaid here. Whether Dr. West had any success with his experiments, one will never know. However, what is known is that Dr. West mysteriously vanished without a trace in 1921. A police investigation at the time turned up no leads as to what became of him. Daniel Cain was suspected of having something to do with the disappearance for a time. However, since no evidence against him could be found, he was released. Whether he knew what had happened to Herbert West or not, he took that secret with him to the grave.

However, it seemed that Dr. West is not the only mysterious disappearance to happen around here.

In the late 19th Century, a meteor fell from the sky and landed on the farm of a family named Gardner (a husband, wife, and three sons). Scientists from Miskatonic University actually went out to investigate said meteor, but could not make heads nor tails of it. The meteor soon dissolved and that was that, or so it seemed.

However, over the next year, strange events happened on the Gardner farm. The fruit went bad almost overnight, the animals began to die off, and the trees and bushes in the whole area withered away. It became a desolate and dead area, which the locals at the time called the Blasted Heath. As for the Gardner family themselves, they just vanished, all five of them. Some say that something that came from that meteor consumed them.

Curious, I wished to see the Blasted Heath for myself, but found out that the whole area is now under water because of the town reservoir that was put there in the early 1930's. Whatever secrets there are now lie out of reach at the bottom of said reservoir.

Disappearances are not only the strange events to happen here in Arkham.

Take the case of one Joel Manton. In 1923, Mr. Manton visited an old house, reputed to be haunted by a horrible creature. What happened then is left to conjecture, for Mr. Manton was found later, totally insane. He kept babbling about something "Unnameable." He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum. As for that old house, it mysterious burned down not long after.

Then there is the case of Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, who became an Instructor Of Political Economy at Miskatonic University, in 1895. He seemed perfectly normal. However, in 1908, something happened to him. Those who knew him said he suffered a "fit of amnesia". However, it was a very strange one. While he could not remember family and friends, like most cases of amnesia, it seemed to go much further than that. He spoke a language that no one could understand, he seemed unfamiliar with the functions of his own body, he seemed not to know current events and history. Over time, he managed to relearn the English language, but the damage was done. He lost his job at Miskatonic University, his marriage collapsed, he drove away most of his friends. In short he became a totally different person. What's more interesting is that he took mysterious trips to places like Greenland, the Australian Outback, and the Himalayas for reasons unknown.

It is interesting to note that those locations were the supposed outposts of an alien race called the Mi-go, although that is pure conjecture here on the part of Rex and myself (we've done a bit of research on this subject, believe me). However, one has to wonder, was Nathaniel Peaslee going to those locations to seek out the Mi-go, and if so, why?

In 1913, Mr. Peaslee abruptly returned to normal. He could not recall the five years he was not himself. Except for weird dreams, he then lived a somewhat normal life until his death in 1941.

However, what is even more amazing to me is not that these events happened, but the lack of general knowledge about them. I had to knock on a few doors to get the information I've written about here, and most would only agree to give it to me on the promise that I not reveal their names. Why is that? All I can figure is that someone, or something, has been covering up these mysterious events for reasons I cannot fathom. Seems that whatever has been going on here, and is probably still going on to this day, has been happening for decades, if not centuries.

In conclusion, this town of Arkham has skeletons that have mysterious stories behind them. And I'm going to find out what they are, one way or another.


End file.
